


When you get caught between the moon and London City

by bunnysworld



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Chance Meetings, Falling In Love, M/M, Strangers to Lovers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-04
Updated: 2018-02-04
Packaged: 2019-03-13 15:52:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,257
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13573848
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bunnysworld/pseuds/bunnysworld
Summary: Arthur is on a flight back to London when this upgraded economy passenger takes the seat next to him. At first, he's not pleased





	When you get caught between the moon and London City

**Author's Note:**

> Just something that came to my mind listening to the radio the other day. As you can see from the title, this is inspired by 'The best that you can do' by Christopher Cross. I didn't know that it is also called 'Arthur's Theme', I'm obviously too young to know the movie it's from (yay, for once I'm too young for something!).  
> This is not beta'd, sorry.

Arthur barely looked up from his laptop when someone entered the cabin. He had work to do and couldn’t waste time. Boarding was taking a lot longer than it was supposed to anyways. 

“Hi!”

When the person who had come in last dropped a backpack into the seat next to him, Arthur threw him a glance that wasn’t very friendly. He had hoped that he could enjoy his peace and quiet without a seat neighbour. Next time he should probably spend twice the money and just buy two tickets. 

Oh no! Arthur supressed a sigh. Judged by the sweatpants and fleece jacket, the hipster glasses – Arthur remembered the times where those were a clear sign that you were dealing with a nerd – the baseball hat and the aforementioned backpack that the man was now carefully stowing away in the overhead bin after pulling a few things out first, this was an economy traveller that had hit jackpot and been upgraded to first class. 

Turning back the spread sheet on his screen, Arthur tried hard not to notice the excitement his new neighbour radiated as he fastened the seatbelt. He’d obviously never flown first class and tried out all the little things that an economy traveller probably had never seen before. 

Barely acknowledging the flight attendant as she introduced herself and handed them the menus, Arthur noticed that the man next to him beamed at her and even thanked her for explaining the different components of the meal. Probably some weirdo who thought it was fashionable to go gluten- or something else-free. 

Concentrating on his work again, Arthur tried to ignore the man. He hadn’t seen much, but when the guy had taken off his baseball hat, he had revealed dark hair that stood up in every different direction when he ran a hand through it. Arthur swallowed. That was exactly what he wanted to do with this hair. But what was he thinking? The man had been upgraded into the seat next to him, he would be rid of him in a few hours and never see him again. And that was a good thing, too. 

The flight attendant brought him the Coke he had ordered ages ago and then asked the guy next to him what he wanted to drink while the plane still stood at the gate and seemed to wait for whatever. Of course he had to ask her for some herbal tea. It fit, he was that kind. Arthur wouldn’t have been surprised if he unrolled a yoga mat in the aisle. 

Biting his lower lip, Arthur tried to keep a straight face. He couldn’t just laugh for no apparent reason. 

What was he doing now? Couldn’t he sit still for one moment? What was he fiddling with?

Arthur frowned. He should concentrate on his report instead of the freak next to him, but he couldn’t help but notice that the man had pulled a pen and a little book out of the pocket in the seat in front of him; once again giving Arthur enough reason to laugh when he had to unbuckle his seat belt to even reach it, obviously that wasn’t an issue in economy. A booklet, and now he started to scribble in it. Who on earth still wrote up stuff like this? Get a laptop, or at least a tablet and a keyboard and welcome to the 21st century. It was endearing, though, when the man tapped the end of his pen against his full lower lip when he contemplated what to write. 

After a while, the plane finally taxied to the runway and the flight attendant took their cups and glasses from them and asked them to follow the rules – shut down all electronic devices, fold the table away and put your seat upright, the usual jazz. Bored, Arthur looked out of the tiny window. He was a frequent flyer and had experienced so many starts and landings that a pilot could envy him, so this one, even though delayed, was nothing special. If they climbed to their travel altitude soon, he could continue working and make good use of the almost seven hours back to London. 

When he leaned back and tried to relieve the pressure on his hears, the man next to him tried to peer out of the window, throwing him a quick smile.

Arthur was mesmerized. He hadn’t noticed at first that the man’s eyes were so blue and it was endearing how they crinkled into half-moons when he smiled. Arthur closed his own eyes. This was neither the place nor the time to develop an interest in another man. 

“Not fond of starts?”

Opening his eyes and looking over, Arthur raised his eyebrow questioningly.

“You look like you’re not too fond of starts.” 

Smiling despite himself, Arthur shook his head. “I don’t mind them. Sometimes the pressure on the ears gets a bit too much, though.”

Reaching into the pocket of his worn fleece jacket, the man produced a pack of chewing gum. “Here, take one. Always helps me.” He held it out.

Arthur wasn’t sure. First class etiquette only allowed polite conversation in the most necessary cases. That seemed to be different in economy class where strangers apparently chatted and offered each other help and sympathy. 

Before he knew it, the man had pushed a chewing gum out of the blister into Arthur’s hand. “Here you go.” 

It was too late to decline, so Arthur put the chewing gum into his mouth and the first few chews already helped his ears. “Thank you.”

They reached their altitude quickly and Arthur opened his laptop again. He couldn’t concentrate on the report, though. It didn’t take long before they were served new drinks and after that the usual meal. Arthur had stopped even looking at what he ate. He had been stuck in a meeting until it was time to rush to the airport and didn’t have time to eat there, so as long as it didn’t taste revolting and filled him, it was good.

“Wow.”

He looked over. 

“This is really good. I never had such a good meal on a plane.” The man beamed at him.

You’ve probably not been able to afford a few thousand pounds for a flight, that’s why. Arthur just nodded politely, though, without uttering that thought. “It’s alright.”

The man laughed. “As you might have guessed, I’m usually not flying first class. Compared to what they give you back there,” he pointed over his shoulder with his thumb, “This is a gourmet meal.”

Arthur smiled. It was difficult not to get swept along with the man’s excitement. 

They finished their meals and the man stretched and rubbed his belly. Hadn’t it been so utterly endearing, Arthur would have rolled his eyes. 

“I think I’m going to take a nap. It’s been a day of difficult negotiations.”

Arthur just nodded. What would this guy have to negotiate? Which burger joint he’d chose for lunch or which tourist attraction to visit next? And who would he have to negotiate with? He wasn’t one of those strange ones who talked to themselves, split personalities and all? 

Once in a while, Arthur peeked over. The guy had folded himself into the seat – this couldn’t be comfortable – and seemed to be fast asleep. Arthur took a moment to admire the sharp cheekbones, the wonderful thick hair, the lips that had moulded around words in a way he had never heard before, the sticking out ears and the pale, smooth skin. He had to admit that his fellow traveller was kind of attractive. 

But where did these thoughts come from? He wasn’t interested in a hook-up in the sky. He’d had one attempt of joining the mile high club when he was a lot younger, but it had been so uncomfortable to squeeze into the tiny lavatory that having sex there didn’t really work. How did people do it? And why did that thought cross his mind now that he was watching the man next to him sleep.

Clearing his throat, he turned his attention back to his work. He couldn’t sit here and perve on a stranger. 

It had always been difficult for Arthur to sleep on a flight, so after finishing his report and storing his laptop away, he had tried to get some rest and looked outside after watching how an overly big plane made its way across the Atlantic on the tiny screen in front of him. More than once he caught himself looking over to see what his neighbour was doing, but the man was still asleep. Lucky sod. 

Hours later, the flight attendant started gently waking everyone up by bringing more drinks and some snacks. The man next to him stretched and rubbed his eyes.

“Ah, that was good. Never slept so well on a plane.” He sent Arthur a sleepy smile. 

Arthur shook his head. “I can’t sleep on planes.”

“Why not? It’s roomy, nobody disturbs you, nobody kicks your seat and you get a fluffy blanket.” He folded said blanket and stored it away neatly. “Or is there too much going on in that pretty head of yours?”

Pretty head? Was the man flirting with him? If the twinkle in his eye and the cheeky smile was anything to go by, yes. Gosh, Arthur hadn’t been flirted with for so long that he couldn’t really tell anymore. 

He shrugged. “I don’t even know.”

“You’re not afraid of flying, are you?”

Arthur laughed. “That would make my job quite difficult.”

“Oh, so you’re a pilot and just on this flight to get back to London?”

“That would indeed make my job difficult, but no, I’m not a pilot. I work for a big company and my job requires me to stay in contact with our branch offices around the world.”  
“So, you’re one of these types that are never home?”

With everyone else, Arthur would have been offended at the ‘one of these types’ remark, but the sad look on the man’s face kept him from pondering that. “Oh, I am at home. I just don’t have a nine to five job.”

“Me neither, but I am at home a lot.” The man beamed at the flight attendant, who refilled their drinks again. 

Usually, Arthur wasn’t interested in small-talk with other passengers, but they should be descending into London any minute now and somehow the economy class stranger with his enthusiasm and twinkling eyes would probably make an amusing story when he next met the guys. 

The speaker system bing-bong’d. “Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. We were well on our way to London Heathrow but just got informed that they seem to be having a bit of an issue with fog. We’re on waiting status until they have figured out what to do with us.”

A collective groan could be heard and on any other flight, Arthur would have frowned, checked his watch and tried to calculate when he would be home and who to call immediately once they’d finally landed. Today, he found, he didn’t mind. “Is somebody waiting for you at the airport?” He asked before he could help himself. It really wasn’t his business.

“No.” The man shook his head. “You?”

“Neither. I always take a taxi back. Situations like these only waste people’s time.”

“Well, it gives us a bit more time on the plane. I like flying. As I said, I don’t do it too often, I’m home a lot.”

Arthur noticed that the guy brought the conversation back to where they had been interrupted by the announcement. “Home maker?” 

The man laughed and Arthur immediately liked the sound. “No, I’m a writer.”

“A writer.” 

“Yes, a writer.” The man grinned widely. He had put one socked foot up on the seat and turned towards Arthur. 

“What are you writing?” He had obviously wanted him to ask and Arthur was more than likely to be in for a boring explanation about technical writing or something like this.

“Oh, novels and such.”

“Novels. What kind of novels?” Arthur wasn’t too big on reading, he just didn’t have the time, but maybe he was sitting next to a best-selling author whose books he had at least heard of?

“Romance novels.” The man smiled.

Arthur shrugged. “Sorry, I don’t really read those.”

“Even if you did, you might have never heard of me. I write gay romance novels, that’s not for everybody, I know.”

Nearly choking on his drink, Arthur looked over.

“Too much information?” The man asked cheerily and Arthur noticed once again that thing his eyes did when he smiled widely. 

“Not at all. You just don’t meet the author of gay romance novels every day. Is that really a thing? I mean, there is a market for that?” 

“Of course there is.”

“I didn’t know there were so many gay people reading romance novels.” 

The man laughed again. “It’s not only gay people, it’s straight people, too. And…well, all the different variations there are.”

“I never knew.” By now, Arthur was dying to know if the man drew from experience or if he was one of the writers who just had a vivid imagination. “How…how does one become the author of gay romance novels?”

Taking a sip of his tea, the man chuckled. “Well, it’s not like you walk into a company and apply as such. It all started when I was out of a job. I wrote fanfiction, stories with characters from a TV show, to pass the time. One of them got so popular that a publisher contacted me. And the rest, as they say…”

“And you make a living off that?”

“In the beginning, I could not, but things are looking good now. I’m on my way back from a tour through the East Coast states.”

“A tour?” Arthur felt dumb. What kind of tour would an author go on?

“Yes. Reading excerpts from my new book, meeting readers and all that.”

Arthur looked at him with renewed respect. For a moment he had through the guy was some weirdo, sitting in his tiny, cramped place, typing away frantically on his old laptop, a nerd that never saw the light of day. He obviously seemed to enjoy meeting people, though, the contact with the people who bought his novels seemed important to him. “Isn’t that exhausting?”

“Sometimes. Usually, you just meet a lot of people who don’t understand that you are just as excited as them.” He laughed again. 

“I hope this isn’t too personal. I’ve seen you scribbling into a notebook. As an author you sure work electronically, don’t you?”

“You’re very observant.” The man threw him a warm smile. “Sometimes I like to note down ideas or thoughts that might become important later. It is somehow more real for me when I write them on paper.”

It seemed inefficient, but strangely made sense to Arthur. When he typed his numbers into his laptop, it was just that, numbers on a screen. Gone as quickly as he had typed them. He nodded. 

The speaker system cackled to life again. “Ladies and gentlemen, this is First Officer Janskow. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. It looks as if Heathrow, in fact all airports in London are closed at this point in time due to the worst fog situation in decades. We will divert to Edinburgh. Thank you.”

“Thank you?” The dark-haired man said and blinked. 

Arthur chuckled. “What else is he supposed to say?” Under other circumstances, he would have been furious. He would lose a lot of time and miss a few meetings in the morning and time indeed was money. He just enjoyed the company too much to really care.

“Oh, I don’t know. How about…have a good night at the airport, sleeping on your luggage? Or…we don’t care at all how you will make it home?”

Just then, their flight attendant stepped up to them. “We just got notice that our ground staff in Edinburgh is already working on finding you appropriate accommodation. I’m sorry for the inconvenience.”

Arthur just nodded politely, but the guy in the next seat smiled at the flight attendant insecurely. “That surely doesn’t include me, I’m not actually here, you know?”

She smiled widely at him. “Today, you are a first class traveller and therefore this includes you, too, Mr. Emrys.”

He turned and stared at Arthur with a surprised and delighted look on his face.

They kept talking until they finally landed in Edinburgh and Arthur enjoyed every minute of it. He couldn’t remember ever have a more entertaining flight. The man – Mr. Emrys – was funny and witty and even if he hadn’t been that, Arthur could just have watched him talking so animatedly for hours. He was almost a bit sad when they finally landed.

“We’re here.” The man gathered his things after unbuckling the seat belt. “Let’s see how we get home.”

“Most likely by train in the morning.” Arthur wasn’t naïve enough to think they could take a plane the next day. Even if the fog had cleared up, there would be endless delays, so taking the train seemed the logical option.

They gathered their things, left the plane and were immediately directed to a counter where ground personnel informed them which hotel reservation they made for them and pointed them to the taxi stand. 

After getting their luggage, they waited in line. 

“Where did they book you?”

Arthur checked the paper. “The Waldorf.”

“Me too! Wow, I never set foot into it, but it’s close to the train station, so we won’t have to waste too much time in the morning.”

“You know Edinburgh?” He’d been there a couple of times, but never had the time to explore the city.

“Kind of. I’ve had a boyfriend here when I was younger.”

A boyfriend. Alright, so that was cleared up now. Without even noticing, Arthur moved closer. “How about we share a taxi? We’re going to the same place after all and it would save one of us the additional waiting time.” He enjoyed the company of this man way too much already and he didn’t want their time to come to an end.

“Great idea! You know, I’ve had a good nap on the plane and the food was great, but it’s still been a long time on the road and to be honest, I start feeling a bit peckish.”

Arthur smiled. He was dead on his feet but this man was so enthusiastic about everything and he didn’t want to miss a minute. “That’s settled, then.”

When it was their turn, they got into the taxi and the man pointed out things about the city and buildings. 

They checked into the hotel and Arthur knew he couldn’t let the man just go. When he was done, got his keys and turned to make his way to the elevators, Arthur called out to him.

“Hey…Mr. Emrys.” He grinned. “I don’t even know your first name.”

“I’m Merlin, Mr. Pendragon.” Of course he would know Arthur’s name just as Arthur knew his. 

“Arthur. I’m Arthur. Listen…I know it’s late and we’re tired, but you mentioned a late dinner…can I buy you dinner?”

Merlin’s face lit up. “Let’s meet again here in twenty?”

Arthur nodded and somewhere, in the back of his mind, he already cancelled all appointments for the next day to let the author of gay romance novels show him the city.


End file.
